Naomi's Coffee
by OkayDokey33
Summary: It's Christmas on Den-Liner, and everyone is preparing to celebrate this wonderful holiday, but it turns out that they'll be celebrating more than just Christmas on the train today! What is this special occasion, and how does Naomi fit into all of this?


Note: I never understood why, after one entire series and several movies, Den-O never told us the backstory to Naomi, a character that we saw practically every episode! I know she's just a fun side-character, but come on! (Sigh) Ah well, here's the first out of two Christmas specials for this year!

* * *

"Merry Christmas everyone!" Ryotaro cried.

"Oh!" Naomi said, looking away from what she was doing in order to greet him, "Merry Christmas to you too Ryotaro!" She was decorating the train with Christmas decorations, and they were currently in Den-Liner's dining car, which Naomi was the waitress of. Naomi was currently standing on a table, putting up a Christmas wreath above the door leading to another car.

Ryotaro looked at her with wide eyes. "Naomi, don't you think that's a little dangerous?"

Naomi simply winked at him and gave him the thumbs up. "Don't worry about it! I've been doing this for a while now!" she turned her attention back to the task at hand, "You can say I'm kind of an expert at this."

Ryotaro smiled, and nodded slowly in understanding. "Is that so?"

Naomi looked across her shoulder and flashed him a smile. "Yep!"

Ryotaro laughed. He looked around the car to see if anyone else was there at the moment. To his disappointment, the only person other than Naomi and himself in the car was Owner, who was sitting at his own personal table at the end of the car… the same table that Naomi was using as a stool to reach above the car's door. He was doing his usual thing: eating a dish of fried rice with a flag in the center of the dish, taking big scoops of rice with a giant spoon, but careful not to tip the flag over. It was a little game he played while he ate, and apparently it was something he challenged the Station Master to every chance they got. Think of it like a food version of Jenga. A Jenga you could eat.

Once Naomi finished what she was doing, she carefully got off the table and went back to diner. Today was Christmas, and passengers would be expecting Christmas-worthy dishes, and Christmas-worthy dishes don't make themselves. She would have to get started right away.

While Naomi was doing her thing, Ryotaro decided to say hello to Owner. "Merry Christmas Owner."

Owner was apparently surprised by Ryotaro's greeting, because after Ryotaro said that, Owner flinched, his giant spoon hitting the flag at the center of the dish and tipping it over. When the flag tipped over, he made his usual face whenever it tipped over, became the usual serious Owner he usually was, reached for his cane, and looked at Ryotaro.

"Ah! Ryotaro, how have you been lately?" Owner asked with that deep voice of his.

"Ah… well everything has been fine so far." Ryotaro answered. "Nothing's really changed since the last time we met."

Owner let out a mysteriously smile. He pointed his cane at Ryotaro and pointed it from his head to his toes, and then back again. "I can see that that is certainly true."

Ryotaro nodded slowly. He understood what Owner was talking about, and he was used to it by now, but there was certainly a part of him that still felt awkward about his whole situation. Despite the fact that he was in his early twenties, a time alteration had de-aged him, making him look like what he was when he was thirteen years old. Owner had said that, eventually, the alteration would wear off and he would eventually return to his old appearance soon. He was still waiting for "soon" to happen, but until then, he would just have to go with the lie that he was suffering from an extremely rare disease. It sounded ridiculous, but it was enough to fool his older sister and her two friends and they were practically the only other people he knew besides the Den-O crew. Now that Ryotaro thought about it, he needed to make new friends.

Ryotaro shook off that thought. "So…," he looked around the car to see that no one else had entered the dining car yet, "where are Momotaros and the others?"

Owner stood up and started walking towards the door that Ryotaro had just walked out of. "Momotaros and the others are currently at the station, buying Christmas presents." He turned around and looked at Ryotaro with that usual mysterious grin of his. "Until then, I suggest that you entertain yourself until we make a stop at the station again."

Ryotaro nodded slowly. There was no real way to nod at Owner quickly. He was the type of guy that can slow down the fastest of conversations. "Okay then."

Owner smiled. "Very well then!" He turned to Naomi. "Naomi, I'm going to take my usual run."

Naomi nodded, smiled and shouted as Owner exited the car, "Okay then! See you again!"

Owner exited the car. Now it was just Ryotaro and Naomi. Naomi was currently doing her usual thing behind her counter and Ryotaro just stood there, with a loss of what to do. It wasn't like Den-Liner had anything to do in the first place and usually the Taros and Kohana were the ones who livened up the place, but since they weren't here at the moment….

"Aw geez! It's pretty boring without everyone here, is it?" Naomi whined.

Ryotaro nodded. "It's unusually quiet." He turned to Naomi and grinned. "You'd think we'd like it quiet here every once and a while, but in reality, we've grown quite accustomed to it, haven't we?"

Naomi giggled. "That's for sure!"

Ryotaro took a seat at Naomi's counter, and there was an awkward silence between the two. After a moment, Naomi decided to resume her duties and Ryotaro, with nothing else to do, watched her.

"Strange," Ryotaro thought to himself as he watched Naomi work, "this is the first time Naomi and I have ever been alone together. Usually when we were together, there would always be someone else to talk to, and I'd just talk to them instead, but now that there's no one else here I guess I should start a conversation."

Ryotaro was about to do just that, when all of a sudden, one of the doors to the car flew open. As they both looked to see who had entered, they saw, instead, white dancing feathers. Everything seemed to go in slow motion, until finally Sieg pirouetted inside the dining car.

"Hello, hello my dear friends!" Sieg said overdramatically. Sieg was an Imagin, a monster that had traveled through time (just like Momotaros, Urataros, Kintaros, Ryutaros, Deneb and Teddy), that Ryotaro and his friends befriended one time, and since then, Sieg has helped them out on several occasions. Despite how powerful he is, he can't stay in the present for too long, and can only stay in the past. Not to mention the fact that, when you get down to it, his personality makes him hard to work with.

"Oh!" Sieg cried, looking around the empty car. "I only see the waitress," he indicated towards Naomi, "and the boy that is still growing backwards!" he said, indicating Ryotaro. He dramatically put his hand on his forehead and acted like he was in pain. "Oh where, oh where did all my friends go?! Oh where, oh where did my princess go?!" He spread his arms out wide. "Boy!" he turned his attention to Ryotaro, "Go and fetch my friends for me! And waitress!" he turned his attention to Naomi, "Go and make me some food!" He sat down on one of the diner's seats. "Your prince has finally arrived, and after so long too!"

"Sieg," Ryotaro began, "everyone's at the station right now. I couldn't get them even if I wanted to."

"And I need to make food for everyone else first." Naomi lightly scolded. Naomi usually showed everyone a happy and ditzy personality, and despite the fact that Sieg was hard to work with, he was no exception.

Sieg sighed. "And all the trouble I went through to get here on this very special day!" He turned to Naomi once again. "Waitress, would you at least give me a cup of your delicious coffee please?" He gave her a little bow.

Naomi's face lit up. "One cup of coffee coming up!" She went to go make some.

Ryotaro cringed. Naomi was a good chef and all, but for some reason, her coffee was terrible. Every time Ryotaro took a sip of it, he had to choke it down, and he wasn't the only one. Despite the fact that everyone tried to hide it from Naomi, everyone (Kotaro, Yuuto, Kohana) thought the coffee was terrible, but whenever she served whole trays of it to everyone in the car, everyone just politely accepted it. The only ones that seemed to like the coffee were the Imagins. In fact, they never got enough of it. Ryotaro wanted to ask what made the coffee so special to them, but, for one reason or another, the question always slipped his mind. Nevertheless, Naomi loved making coffee, and it was always a delight for her to make something she loved making.

It only took a minute for Naomi to make Sieg's coffee, and, to Ryotaro's disappointment, she had made him a cup too. Ryotaro cringed as he looked at the coffee. What coffee? All he could see was lots of red whipped cream covering the entire drink. Ryotaro looked at Sieg's cup. Just like his, the top was completely covered by whipped cream, but with the colors white, yellow and light blue instead.

Sieg took a sip of his coffee, holding the cup with his pinky out, like a prince would. "Ah!" he said as he parted the cup from his lips, leaving a whipped cream mustache, "Delightful, as always!"

Naomi smiled. "You're very welcome." She turned to Ryotaro. "Aren't you going to drink your cup Ryotaro?"

Ryotaro gave her an awkward grin and nodded. "Y-yeah, sure." He took a sip of his "coffee". He would have almost immediately spit it out, but with Naomi staring at him intently, he forced himself to choke it all down. He cringed, forced himself to smile and said weakly, "Thanks Naomi."

Naomi smiled. "You're very welcome," she said again, and started getting back to her job.

Ryotaro looked at his cup one more time before asking, "So Naomi..."

Naomi turned around again. "Yes?"

Ryotaro wiped his mouth on his sweater. "What… exactly did you put in this?"

Naomi put a finger on her chin and thought for a moment. "Hmm. Let's see." She snapped her fingers and turned to Ryotaro. "There was some chocolate, some red peppers, a little bit of carrot, and maybe one or two drops of food coloring!" She winked at Ryotaro. "With the regular coffee ingredients of course!" She went back to her work.

Ryotaro nodded slowly. What exactly were "regular coffee ingredients" to her anyway?

Sieg, oblivious to Ryotaro's plight, finished his coffee and said, "Mademoiselle!" Naomi turned to Sieg as he was waving his coffee cup in the air. "Would you be ever so kind as to give me a second helping of this… divine coffee?" He saw Ryotaro was looking at his cup. "And give our friend here a second helping as well!" He turned to Ryotaro. "Do not worry my dear friend! This treat is on me!"

"But Sieg," Ryotaro thought, "Naomi never charges us in the first place!"

Naomi's face lit up again. "Coming right up!"

The moment she finished the new batch, Sieg quickly took it and sipped it. Ryotaro simply took the cup again and cringed. "Thanks a lot Sieg," Ryotaro thought.

Sieg quickly finished his cup and wiped off his whipped cream mustache with a napkin, and said, "Delightful… as always madam!"

Naomi beamed. "It's always a pleasure!"

Sieg gave her his cup back and said, "Indeed, it is always a pleasure to serve a prince, especially one of my stature! But I MUST know how you ever became such an incredible coffee maker!" He put his hands together, in a princely fashion, and waited impatiently for her answer.

Naomi looked down. Was it Ryotaro's imagination, or did Naomi look sad?

Naomi then looked back at Sieg, with a small smile on her face. "I don't know."

Ryotaro looked at the waitress in shock. What did she mean she didn't know?

Sieg looked unsatisfied with the answer he received. "I don't understand." He stood up with his hands planted on the counter. "It would be unwise for you to keep secrets from me." He said in both an overdramatic and threatening voice. Ryotaro was surprised that such a tone was possible. He was also surprised by Sieg's statement. True, Sieg was powerful, much more powerful an Imagin then the other Imagin that fought alongside them, but he wasn't in the position to really threaten Naomi. Sieg's power outside of his battle armor (other than the ability to manipulate feathers) was the ability to make other Imagin shrink by mere thought alone. To Ryotaro's knowledge, Sieg couldn't shrink anything other than Imagin, even if he wanted to.

Naomi clapped her hands together in mock fear. She knew this too, but, as always, decided to play along. "I'm sorry! But I really don't know!" Her face was then covered by a gloomy, thoughtful expression, an expression that Ryotaro hadn't seen on Naomi's face very often. The only other time that she had that expression was when the Taros supposedly died.

Ryotaro decided to get into the conversation before Sieg could speak his mind again. "Naomi?" he asked softly. He couldn't really explain it, but there was something about a gloomy Naomi that didn't seem right to him. She always had a smile on her face whenever he came on board the Den-Liner, and she only ever had any other expression on when things got serious. But this wasn't a serious moment, and Naomi having an expression other than a cheerful one seemed so out of place and wrong to him, and he was sure that anyone else who would have been here would have said the same thing. And he was right, because although he didn't realize it yet, Sieg was having these thoughts as well.

Naomi noticed Sieg and Ryotaro staring at her, and quickly put a smile on her face. "Don't worry about it!" she said playfully, and went back to preparing meals for the passengers.

As she did her job, Ryotaro and Sieg stared at each other for a moment. Ryotaro finally found the courage to ask one more question. "Naomi," he began, "how… how did you get on Den-Liner?"

Naomi was obviously taken aback from this question, as she noticeably froze, but after a while, she recovered from her shock and continued doing what she was doing.

Another silent moment passed by before Sieg urged, "Mademoiselle… please answer the boy's question."

Naomi froze again, and said, with her back still facing them, "I… I really don't know. I'm sorry, but it's all a blur." She turned back to the two and put on a small smile. "But I couldn't have forgotten all of it, right? I still remember how to cook, and I still remember my love for coffee, right?" She let out a little laugh.

Ryotaro looked down apologetically. "I'm sorry. We shouldn't have asked," he said in a weak voice.

Naomi raised her hands in protest. "Don't be! I'm happy where I am anyway!"

Sieg reached for her hand across the diner and kissed it. "Despite that, I give you my sincerest apologies. I wish you the best of luck with your memories mademoiselle."

Naomi blushed a little bit. "Aw, it's no big deal!" She went back to her work.

Ryotaro and Sieg looked at each other for a moment before one of the car's doors opened up to reveal Owner, standing by. "Ryotaro! Sieg!" he cried, pointing at the two with his cane, "Would you please follow me? There appears to be a problem with the train that I need your immediate help on!"

They both stared at him for a moment, looked at Naomi, working hard behind her counter, and nodded, as they walked out of the car to where Owner was standing. As the door closed behind them, the three of them just stood there, in between cars.

Ryotaro stared at Owner for a moment before asking, "Um… Owner… what did you want us for?"

Owner looked at both of them with that mysterious smile of his. He glanced at Naomi through the car door's window. Sieg and Ryotaro did the same.

"It's quite a shame, isn't it?" Owner looked at the two again, as they continued to look through the window. "Naomi was a victim of an Imagin attack, and just like that piano player you saw that one time," Ryotaro looked at him in shock, "no one remembered her."

In their world, time travel was different then how science fiction novels described it. Okay, this is kind of hard to explain, but time in Den-O's world… is like a biographer writing a biography. Let me elaborate. Image that there was an event in the world, and imagine only one person survived in order to tell the tale, and let's imagine that he was asked to write about what happened in a book. Since he is the only person to tell the tale, whatever he says happened, because there is no one else to say otherwise. His book, no matter how wrong, no matter how many details he forgot to mention, would be considered the truth, would be considered what ACTUALLY happened. His book would BE time! If he forgets to mention this person, or that person, and no one can justify the existence of those people in that event, then it would be like those people never existed at all. And remember, this person is the only survivor of this event. "This" person and "that" person can't defend their existence, and with all proof gone and all memories of these people in this event non-existent, there's no reason NOT to believe that they didn't participate in this event. If someone DID vouch for their existence and participation in this event, then "this" or "that" person WOULD exist, because someone remembered them in that event and could vouch for their existence there.

Time travel in Den-O's world works the same way. As long as someone remembers you and has you in their memory, then no matter what changes are made in the past, no matter what anomaly happens, you'd still be okay. That's because time is actually more powerful than people make it out to be. The greatest power of Den-O was to return the past back to normal despite all the destruction caused to it. This has happened many times for Ryotaro and his friends. The fights with the Imagin always caused lots of collateral damage, and as the Imagins always arrived first to the past and had some time left before Den-O caught up with it, many people had died from their attacks on the past. However, since people remembered them, when time fixes itself (after the Imagin is destroyed, that's where the Den-O comes in in fixing the space time continuum) the people are restored as well.

Another example of this would be the piano player Owner was talking about. The piano player was killed in an Imagin's attack on the past, and unlike other people, he didn't get revived. This was because he wasn't remembered by anyone else, and the only person that DID remember him was in a coma. With no one really to vouch for this person's existence, in mind or voice, it was like the piano player didn't exist at all.

However, just because they aren't remembered, doesn't ACTUALLY mean that they never existed at all. That's where Den-Liner comes in. Den-Liner is a train that travels through time, and whenever someone is forgotten and killed or erased in a time anomaly, the "memory" of that person wanders through time, waiting for the time when they are finally remembered and can go back to their regular lives, that they can go back to "existing" again. (Whew, that was a mouthful.)

Now you understand why not being remembered is actually a pretty big deal. If the explanation wasn't clear enough then… you're on your own.

Ryotaro looked at Owner for a while before asking, "But how come she can't remember what her life was before boarding Den-Liner?"

Owner looked at him with that mysterious smile still plastered on his face. "I wouldn't know. It could be because she already had amnesia before she became a passenger on Den-Liner. Or…" he thought for a moment, "no, that's pretty much the only explanation I have." A goofy grin was on his face.

Ryotaro stared at the floor for a moment. There was silence between the three for a while, before Sieg said, "That's quite the predicament our waitress is in, is it not?" He looked away from the window and looked at the other two. "No one can vouch for her existence, and at the same time, she can't even vouch for herself." He shook his head. "How very tragic."

"I can't believe that after all this time with her, I didn't know about her situation until now." Ryotaro said sadly. He shook his head in shame. "Every time I come here there's always something big going on. I never realized…."

Sieg put a comforting hand on Ryotaro's shoulder and squeezed it firmly. "Ryotaro, now is not the time for tears." He turned Ryotaro around and put his other hand on his other shoulder, lifted his head up to face him, and looked at him straight in the eye. "Rather than pity her situation, and reprimand ourselves for our ignorance, we should do something about it."

"I hope you're not thinking what I think you're thinking." Owner warned. "It is against the rules to change the past for any personal reasons."

Ryotaro turned to Owner with pleading eyes. "Can we at least travel back to the time Naomi was in before she boarded Den-Liner?"

Owner turned to the teenage looking young man. "How do you suppose we do that? Naomi isn't possessed by an Imagin, so the Rider Ticket can't pinpoint her past, and besides, those who wander can't be possessed by Imagin to begin with, and anyone who boards Den-Liner could come from ANY time period, the past, the present, or the future. And with Naomi being "forgotten", it would be hard to find clues about her life prior to boarding Den-Liner."

Ryotaro sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Ryotaro and Sieg thought for a moment while Owner just seemed to stare at two intently. Then, an idea popped into Sieg's head. "Your prince is a genius!" he said, stretching his arms out in a flamboyant manner. He motioned for the two to come closer as he whispered his plan to them.

* * *

It was eleven o' clock at night, and Naomi was dead tired. Holiday rushes were always tiring, but seeing the faces of everyone enjoying their meals and telling her that they had a great time was enough to help her keep going. She looked around her dining car. Besides her, it was completely empty. Owner asked for Ryotaro and Sieg's help a long time ago, and Kohana and the Taros were nowhere to be seen, and she was sure that the train had stopped at the station a couple of times already, so where were they?

She sighed. Maybe she should get some sleep. It had been a pretty long day. She was about to turn the lights off when, all of a sudden, one of the doors burst open.

"I…" began a gruff voice, "have finally arrived!"

It was Momotaros, who was followed by Kintaros, Urataros, Ryutaros, Sieg, Kohana, Ryotaro, and Owner. Each of them were carrying two presents, one under each arm, and as everyone in the Den-O crew entered the car, Naomi stood, wide-eyed over what she saw.

"Wait, what's going on here?" Naomi asked, as she pointed at all of the presents they had brought with them. "Isn't this a little too much? I thought it was a Secret Santa!"

Kohana smiled, and held up one of the presents in her hand. "One of these presents is for the Secret Santa, but," she raised the other one, "the other one is for you Naomi!"

Naomi's eyes grew wide again. "W-what?"

Urataros nodded, put his presents down, and walked up to a shocked Naomi. "Ryotaro, Owner and Sieg told us about your dilemma! We were all shocked to say the least!" He took Naomi's hand in his. "To think that such a beautiful flower had to endure such a gloomy rain! But women like that always turn out the most beautiful, no?"

Naomi giggled and blushed. "Well…."

"Ack!" Kohana had just punched Urataros in the gut, and Urataros fell to his knees, clutching his stomach.

"Geez! Can't you ever stop flirting for a moment?" Kohana asked, annoyed.

"Still, he's got a point!" Kintaros said from a seat that he took. "We couldn't have imagined our Naomi going through that type of stuff!" He nodded. "Your strength really makes me cry!"

Momotaros hit Kintaros upside his head. "No one cares what makes you cry you idiot!" He shook his head. "Honestly! If he didn't talk about crying so much already I'd be fine with it, but I'm sick of hearing "crying" this or "crying" that!"

Kintaros stood up and pushed Momotaros. "Tears are the strength of a man!"

Momotaros shoved him back. "My sword says otherwise!"

Kintaros cracked his neck. "You want to find out?"

Momotaros laughed. "Easiest fight I'll ever be in, if all you're gonna do is sleep, like you usually do!"

Kintaros got into his fighting stance. "You know as well as I do that I can take on multiple opponents at once!"

Momotaros was getting into his fighting stance. "And you know that I've been in more fights than you have!" He clenched his fists. "But why don't we cut the chatter and just go, huh?!"

Kintaros let out that hearty laugh of his. "Fine by me!"

They were about to start the fight, when Kohana punched both of them in the gut and both fell down on their knees.

Ryutaros laughed. "Ha ha ha! Kohana wins! Ha ha ha ha ha!" He continued to laugh and point at his fellow Taros on the floor.

Kohana turned to Ryutaros. "Honestly! I'd scold you for laughing and pointing at others," she looked at her victims kneeling on the floor, "but at least you're not as bad as these guys!"

"Y-yeah brat!" Momotaros said, slowly starting to stand up. "You're not any better than we are!"

"Oh?" Ryutaros asked, looking around the room for something. "Did you all hear something? I could have sworn I heard a loser! Ha ha ha ha!"

"Why you little brat!" Momotaros started running towards Ryutaros, but he was stopped by Sieg.

"You imbeciles! This plan was working perfectly until all of you started destroying the atmosphere!"

Momotaros stepped back and raised his hands up to settle him down. "W-well, once you think about it, the turtle guy started it!" he said, pointing at Urataros.

Urataros, not going to take this sitting down, instantly stood up and said, "I did nothing wrong! If anything, it was you and Kintaros's fighting!" He pointed at Momotaros.

"Yeah, Momoji!" Kintaros said, slowly coming back up. "If you hadn't made fun of my passion, we wouldn't be in this situation!" Kintaros folded his arms.

"Idiot! What situation are you even talking about?" Momtaros screamed.

"THIS SITUATION!" Sieg said in a booming voice. He pointed at the three of them. "Your heads are too high!"

At that moment, Urataros, Kintaros and Momotaros began to shrink. They continued to shrink, until they were about the same size as one of Naomi's coffee cups.

"Hey!" Momotaros screamed at Sieg, in a new high-pitched, shrunken voice, "What's the big idea?!"

"Wow! Mini Taros!" Ryutaros laughed and scooped them all up. He then put them in one of Naomi's coffee cups and started terrorizing them with a spoon, much to the Taros' dismay. They shouted threats and pleads for Ryutaros to stop, but unfortunately for them, Ryutaros was kind of sadistic this way.

Sieg sighed. He turned back to Naomi. "As the princess," he said, while indicating Kohana, "and the turtle were saying," he indicated towards the shrunken Urataros, "we bought these presents for you because of what we found about you."

Naomi frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

Ryotaro decided to step in. "Well… when we found out that you don't remember a lot about your past, Sieg realized that you probably didn't know your birthday either, so we bought these presents for you for your birthday!" He gave her a smile. "We don't know when your birthday is, but until we do, we'll pretend that today is your birthday instead!"

Naomi looked quietly at them all for a moment. "R-really?" Naomi asked in a soft voice. Naomi looked at the presents that were meant for her and asked, "But how did you get all of these presents?" She turned to the Taros. "The last time I checked, you guys were broke!"

"That would be because of me!" a voice cried from behind one of the car's doors. As the door opened, she gasped.

"Station Master?!"

The Station Master waved. "Good evening everyone!" He walked into the car and approached Naomi. "When your friends told me about your predicament and said that they all wanted to give you a present, I pulled some strings and they were allowed one free purchase each!"

Naomi smiled. "That's very kind of you."

The Station Master took off his hat and bowed. "The pleasure was all mine!"

Just then, the door bust open again, and Naomi couldn't believe who was walking through it.

"Yuto! Deneb!"

As she cried out their names, Yuto waved, while Deneb said a very cheery, "Mrs. Naomi!" and ran up to her and shook her hand. "It's been so long!"

Naomi laughed and nodded. "It has!"

Yuto went up to Ryotaro and asked, "So which are we doing first, the Birthday Party or the Christmas Party?"

Naomi gasped. "So wait…" she pointed at Yuto, then Deneb, then back at Yuto again. "You mean to tell me that you guys…."

Yuto nodded casually. "Yeah. Ryotaro called us up and told us about the party, so we came by." He showed her the present they were going to give her.

"Oh!" Naomi took the present and excitedly shook it. "What is it?"

Yuto shrugged. "I don't know. Deneb bought it." He looked at Deneb. "What'd you get her Deneb?"

Deneb put his hands on his hips and said proudly, "A small box of "Deneb Candy"… surrounded by shitake mushrooms! So whenever Yuto visits, you can always give him a dish with shitake in it!"

"Deneb!"

"Yuto, you need your mushrooms!"

"I eat broccoli, asparagus, carrots, apples, bananas, eggplant, spinach, and lots of the other fruits and vegetables! Shitake is the only vegetable I don't like!"

"Yuto," Deneb said seriously, "Shitake is life."

Yuto couldn't hold it in anymore. "DENEB!" he cried as he ran up to him and gave him a reverse DDT.

Kohana sighed. "Maybe inviting them wasn't such a good idea after all," she whispered to Ryotaro. Ryotaro could only nod slowly.

Just then, the door to the car opened AGAIN, this time revealing…

"Kotaro! Teddy!"

Kotaro waved. "Yo."

Teddy bowed. "It's very nice to see you all again."

"Oh look!" Momotaros cried. "Tendon is here!"

Teddy looked around the room, confused. "My name is Teddy! And who said that?"

"Oh!" Ryotaro remembered what had happened. He looked to Sieg and urged him silently to return the others back to normal.

Sieg sighed. "Oh fine." He snapped his fingers, and within seconds, the Taros had broken the cup they were in and fell to the ground.

"Oh! Momotaros, of course." Teddy went up and bowed to the four. "It has certainly been a while."

Deneb walked up to Teddy. "Hello Teddy! It's been a while since we've seen each other, huh?"

Teddy nodded. "It's been about three or four years hasn't it?"

Deneb shrugged. "Maybe…" he scratched his head, "I don't really remember."

As the Imagin started chatting amongst themselves, Kotaro came up to Ryotaro, with something in his hands. "I got the cake like you wanted me to grandpa."

"Cake?" Ryutaros asked excitedly, running towards Kotaro to get a glimpse of it.

Kotaro nodded and placed the cake on the counter. "I asked Airi to make it for the party." He smiled at Naomi. "She apparently still remembers you."

Ryotaro cringed. His sister had her own coffee shop, and, at one point, Naomi had to sub in for her. Let's just say the customers weren't too thrilled to find out that their usual coffee suddenly tasted pretty bad.

Naomi stepped back for a moment to absorb everything and everyone in the room. "You all came all this way, and did all this… for me?"

Owner put on a Santa hat and said with a goofy grin. "Of course!" He walked towards Naomi and said, "Despite the fact that you don't fight the Imagin with everyone else, the bond between them and you is just as inseparable as the bond between Ryotaro and his Imagin." He used his cane to point at the presents lying on the counter. "This was their way of showing their appreciation for you and the bond you've created with them."

Naomi put her hands over her mouth. She looked like she was about to cry. "R-really?" she asked again.

"Yeah!" Kohana said. "Can you imagine how stressed out I'd be if it was only me taking care of the Taros here?" She cringed at the thought. "And besides, I need another girl to talk to once in a while." She smiled at Naomi again.

Ryutaros looked away from the cake for a moment to look at Naomi, "And who else on this train is going to play with me?" He went back to looking at Airi's cake. "It'd be a pretty boring place for me without you here!"

"And do you remember the time," Sieg began, "when some of us were stranded in the past and you retrieved us in order to defeat Kai's army?"

Kintaros nodded. "And don't forget that you're the one who buys us all our stuff, like my dumbbells, my weights, my sweat clothes… and a lot of other stuff too!"

Kotaro smiled, before leaning on Teddy's shoulder and saying coolly, "I couldn't forget any of you guys even if I wanted to." He looked at Naomi. "Hanging out with grandpa and his friends is always an unforgettable experience."

Teddy took Kotaro off his shoulder and gave Naomi a little bow. "And thank you for back then when you questioned Kotaro's feelings towards his grandfather." He looked at her. "After that moment, I think he started to seriously think about how he felt about his grandfather. In other words… you planted the seed that helped him grow as a person."

Deneb nodded, and added, "And if I ever need a place to express all my worries about Yuto, I just come here, and it's always very reassuring to know that I'd at least have you here to confide with."

Yuto smirked. "This is the only place where I can eat a shitake-less dish in private."

"Exactly!" Urataros cried. "Out of all of us living in Den-Liner, you're the only one who knows how to cook! We'd starve if it weren't for you! Either that or Momotaros would just buy us pudding every day!"

Momotaros turned to Urataros. "Hey! Pudding is the best food there is!"

Everyone laughed. Ryotaro looked at Naomi's face. Cheerful and bright, just as it should be.

"Naomi," Ryotaro stepped forward, with his head looking down bashfully, "it must be so hard on you to know that you were forgotten, and it must be even harder on you to not have memories to lean on and people to look forward to returning to when you're finally remembered… but," he raised his head, "we'd like you to know, that no matter what," he indicated towards the people behind him, "we'll never forget you. And we hope that, until the day comes when you are remembered, or remember yourself, that we are the memories that you can lean on when you feel down. And we want you to know, that when the day finally comes when you are remembered and have to leave Den-Liner for good," he took a deep breath, "we want you to know that we'll be sad to see you leave," he then looked at Naomi straight in the eye and said with confidence, "but we'll also be very happy for you."

Naomi stared at him for a moment, then looked at everyone else, and smiled. "Thank you everyone!" she bowed. She then turned to look at the clock. "Oh my gosh! It's almost midnight!" She gave everyone a frantic look. "We need to hurry! Before Christmas and my birthday are officially over!"

Ryutaros clapped his hands. "Alright! Let's open presents!"

Before Ryutaros could start tearing up any wrapping paper, Momotaros stopped him. "You idiot!" He pointed at Naomi, "We've already told Naomi that today was going to be her birthday, so we should celebrate it before it's too late!" Momotaros cleared his voice, "And I think we should start if off the best way possible." He handed Naomi his gift to her. "With giving her the best gift we have first."

Kintaros scoffed. "How do you know that your gift's the best out of all of ours?"

Momotaros glared at him. "Simple. It's because," he posed, "I am the life of every party!"

Ryutaros stared at Momotaros for a moment, before finally saying, "…And you call me an idiot."

"Shut up!"

"Guys, guys!" Ryotaro cried, "It doesn't matter, Naomi will open them all regardless." he turned to Naomi, "Right?"

Naomi looked up from trying to open Momotaros's present. "Right!" Her eyes gleamed due to her curiosity. Her curiosity seemed to spread, since even the others (except Momotaros) leaned in to see a glimpse of what the gift was.

When the gift was completely uncovered, and Naomi opened the box, she paused for a moment, before frowning, and asked, "Um, Momotaros… what is this?" She held up something that was made up of wires, feathers, paper and glitter. Everyone cringed at the sight of it.

Momotaros laughed, proud of what he had got her. "That's a keychain!"

"Oh!" Deneb cried, and turned to Momotaros and bowed apologetically, "I'm sorry! I didn't realize that keychains have changed their look since the last time we saw each other!"

Yuto hit Deneb on his head. "Idiot! That's not a keychain!" he cried, pointing at Momotaros's gift. He then took a closer look at it. "It looks like it could poke someone's eye out."

"I'm from the future, and even I know that that's not what a keychain looks like." Kotaro muttered.

The Station Master observed it closely. "None of the stores at the station sell this particular brand either."

Momotaros folded his arms proudly. "That's because I made it myself!" He laughed. "There was no keychain of me in any of your stores, so I figured I'd make my own for Naomi." He laughed again at his cleverness.

"Idiot!" Kohana cried. "Station Master allowed you to get anything you wanted for free, and instead you get an art-and-crafts kit and make something bad?"

Ryutaros laughed and pointed at Momotaros. "Yeah, you idiot!" He began rolling in his seat, laughing.

Momotaros was shocked by this response. "Hey! It's sentimental!" He turned to Naomi. "Tell them you like it Naomi!"

Naomi looked at Momotaros's keychain for a moment, then back at him, and said blatantly, "It's kind of cheap."

Momotaros couldn't believe his ears. "What?"

Urataros chuckled. "Figures." He walked up to Momotaros and put a hand on his shoulder. "Someone like you couldn't possibly know how to shop for a lady."

Momotaros forcefully took his hand off of his shoulder. "Shut up you turtle!"

Urataros shook his head and shrugged. "You know… a gentleman cannot always keep his cool." He faced Momotaros. "Sometimes he needs to stop being one in order to impress the ladies," he threatened.

Momotaros was reaching his breaking point. "You're not making any sense!"

Urataros shrugged. "Well excuse me… you barbaric peach!" The two got into a fist fight.

"Urataros and Momotaros fighting?" Naomi's face lit up. "I wonder who'll win?"

As the two fought, they accidentally bumped into Kintaros, who gave a hearty laugh. "Your fighting spirit moves me to tears!" he said while getting into his sumo stance. "I guess it's about time I show you my strength! But be careful!" he cracked his neck a bit, "My strength will make you cry!" He then entered the fray.

"Go, go! Go beat each other up!" Ryutaros cheered, laughing. The moment he said that, however, the three accidentally bumped into him, and trapped him against a wall, and instead he cried, "Get off of me you idiots! You're not supposed to be fighting me!" He then started fighting back.

"Hey, hey, stop it already." Yuto said, beginning to walk towards the group, but Deneb stopped him. Shocked, Yuto turned to his friend, and asked, annoyed, "What is it now Deneb?"

Deneb played with his fingers, before saying bashfully, "You might get hurt Yuto!"

Yuto couldn't take it anymore. "DENEB!" he cried as he started wrestling his partner.

As all of this started getting out of hand, Sieg came in between all of them and cried, "Stop my friends! My plan was going perfectly until you all ruined it… again!"

But none of them would have any of Sieg's ego sitting down. They all pointed their fingers at him and shouted, "Your head is too high!" and each hit him on his head.

After that, Sieg couldn't take it anymore. "It seems that it is time for the prince to teach his peasants a lesson!" he cried as he added to the chaos.

They were about to bump into Kotaro, but Teddy stepped in to protect him. "Are you okay Kotaro?" Teddy asked.

Kotaro slowly stepped back from the scene, and gave Teddy the thumbs up. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Thanks for the save." Just as he said that, however, he slipped on a piece of wrapping paper that Naomi had taken off of Momotaros's present and fell to the ground.

Teddy, concerned, cried, "Kotaro!" but as he did that, he forgot about the chaos around him, and eventually, Kintaros landed on top of him, the weight of the large Imagin too much for Teddy to take, knocking the wind right out of him.

As Owner and the Station Master simply glued themselves to their seats (they had apparently started another round of their food game), Kohana sighed, screaming, "Can't there be a day in the year when all of you can act like civilized human beings for once?" and went into the chaos to try and calm it down.

Ryotaro looked at his friends in nervously. They did realize that if they caused too much of a ruckus, they were going to be thrown out of the train right? Owner had made that point very clear many times before. Oh well, Owner wasn't really paying that much attention anyway, and besides, it was Naomi's "birthday". He was probably going to let this fight slide.

In the cover of all the chaos that was happening, Naomi looked at Momotaros's keychain with love and tears in her eyes, and held it close to her heart. "Thank you, all of you," she said quietly to herself, "I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. I'm so lucky to have friends… no… a family like you." She wiped some of the tears off her face. "And I promise, that when the day comes when I have to leave Den-Liner, and I have to go back to my normal life and have to forget all the memories I've had with you, I promise… that I'll try my very best… to fight it… to keep all of the memories I've had with you all!" She wiped more tears from her face. She could never remember herself crying this much. "Thank you all again! And… Merry Christmas to you too!"


End file.
